The 2017 regatta at Lake Ruataniwha next weekend has attracted 1048 competitors, making up 974 crews.
That is down on last year’s 1174 rowers and 1033 crews and also slightly down on the 2015 numbers, although still above the years before that.
Despite the drop-off, the Otago Rowing Association was "still pretty happy" with the turnout.
General manager Mitch Carroll said there were two differences to previous years which could possibly have influenced the numbers.
One was a regional performance centre training camp overlapping with the regatta.
With RPCs in both Canterbury and Tasman, that would mean the rowers based there would be unavailable.
The other came in Rowing New Zealand changing its grading system meaning the championships would be the first "classification regatta".
That meant a top performance could result in a rower being put up a grade at the end of the season, when they possibly would not want that to happen.
While that would not be such a problem in many cases, it had potential to impact on a weaker rower in a strong crew with more people.
Carroll was unsure whether it had an impact on entries, but the association would be watching to see what influence, if any, was evident at the regatta.
She hoped the effect would be the intended one: making the grades more even instead of having a bottleneck in the middle ones, rather than dissuading rowers from competing.
It was also possible to apply for reclassification if a rower got bumped up for next season based off a result from this regatta.
The majority of the rowers, as usual, were from Otago and Canterbury, although there were others from around the South Island.
Timaru was sending the biggest contingent, with just under 100.With the RPC rowers unavailable, some of the stars would be missing, although Carroll said there were still high-calibre competitors entered.
However, numbers were strong in the novice rowers too, particularly in the fours and quad events.
Carroll said it was a good regatta to get some experience, as well as giving others a chance for some higher-level competition.
